According to his parents, Warmbier has reportedly been in a coma for more than a year.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has released Otto Frederick Warmbier, an American college student who was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in January 2016 after he allegedly tried to bring a propaganda poster home. The United States Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, announced that a successful negotiation on behalf of President Trump had resulted in Warmbier’s release.
The 22 year-old University of Virginia student had travelled to North Korea as part of a tour package with Young Pioneer Tours. While staying at the Yanggakdo International Hotel in the capital city of Pyongyang, Warmbier was arrested on January 2, 2016 for allegedly removing a sign from a floor in the hotel that was restricted to staff of the hotel. He was detained at the Pyongyang International Airport when attempting to leave the country with the rest of his tour group. He was charged with committing an “act of hostility against the State,” and he ‘confessed’ on February 29th.
The so-called confession was likely made under duress, as Warmbier made bizarre and obviously false statements such as being “lured by the United States administration to commit a crime” in North Korea and said that he wished he hadn’t been manipulated to “commit crimes against foreign countries.”
Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor on March 16, 2016 after an envoy from the Obama administration failed to negotiate his release. The State Department spokesperson at the time said that the sentence was in reaction to increased sanctions; it is of note that the Trump administration has been much more outspoken against North Korean weapons testing than the Obama White House.
The negotiations began in earnest after North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations informed the State Department’s special representative for North Korea about Warmbier’s medical condition. The North Korean administration had urgently requested the secret meeting in New York after the Swedish consular in Pyongyang had been allowed to visit the four Americans imprisoned by North Korea; the Swedes had confirmed Warmbier’s condition. President Trump was informed of the situation and Joseph Yun, the Department of State’s special representative, was told to be prepared to travel to North Korea with a medical team in order to bring Warmbier home.
Warmbier has since been medically evacuated to a U.S. military installation in Sapporo, Japan. According to his parents, Warmbier has been reported to have either contracted botulism shortly after he was sentenced or to have fallen into a coma after being given a sleeping pill; he has reportedly been in a coma for more than a year.
Warmbier is expected to arrive home in Cincinnati, Ohio later tonight. When informed by Secretary Tillerson that the negotiations had succeeded and Warmbier was on the way home, President Trump reportedly told Tillerson to “Take care of Otto.” If he had not been detained, Warmbier would have graduated from the University of Virginia in May with double degrees in commerce and economics.
Secretary Tillerson reiterated that the Department of State was continuing to negotiate for the release of three other American citizens currently imprisoned by the North Korean regime.
